Contraption
A pretty intresting video of some contraption created by a couple of people that goes through an entire house.  I’m not sure if I believe its all real with no effects done to them but you can judge that for yourself.

Minimal Workstations
Some reason I always like looking at other peoples work stations and set ups.  Web Designer Depot has put together a pretty good showcase of minimalist work stations, some a little dull but others quite nice.

Aisle One
Antonio Carusone recently relaunched his site with a yet another very nice clean and sleek look.  The main focus continues to be on great typography and minimalism. 

New York Public Library’s Photostream
A really interesting collection of photos on Flickr from the New York Public Library. 
Via Swiss Miss

Heinz has recently announced that they will be introducing a new packing for their “Ketchup” later on this fall. The new design is suppose to make it easier for people to use ketchup on the go. The package will allow consumers to have 2 options on using the condiment.  One way is tearing off the top cap and squeezing the ketchup and the other option is to peel the corner and dip your food inside the packet. I quite like the new ketchup bottle shape design and can’t wait to test it out.  For all the fans of the current ketchup packet don’t worry Heinz will still be producing those as well. 

As the Super Bowl quickly approaches one of the main things during this event that is much anticipated by tons of viewers is seeing what new commercials are debuting and by whom.  One of the usual and largest companies, Pepsi, has already decided to pull out of this years line up but many other companies have returned with newer, funnier, quirkier and sexier ads. I don’t really follow football but some of the commercials airing during the game can be quiet interesting.

Above are a couple of commercials that will be in rotation during this years Super Bowl (Doritos, Go Daddy, Tru Tv, Career Builder), click the images to view the videos. You can also watch more ads at Chiff.

1. Downtown Brooklyn Station 2.Snow Day NYC 3. Walker Street 4. Snacky, BK 5. Kimchi Hotdog

Muji
New site for this Japanese company which sells very nice, simple, and modern products from stationary items to linens. The site reflects their brand with a very clean aesthetic feel.  The design reminds me a bit of the web sites produced for Uniqlo.

North Kingdom
Another new site for the Swedish design studio, featuring a very open and clean look.  They have some behind the scenes features on their blog which are quite interesting and worth a look. 

Sight Unseen
An inside look of Google’s Creative Director, Ji-Lee’s East Village Duplex.  A very nice looking pad with some strange decorations laying around, but would you expect any less?
via Cool Hunting

Beach House - Norway

Beach House - Zebra

Beach House is a 2 person band from Baltimore consisting of Victoria Legrand (vocals, organ) and Alex Scally (guitar, keyboard).  Their latest album titled, “Teen Dream” in a way lives up to the way their music sounds; a very dreamy pop melody that’s reminiscence of those teen flicks from the 70s / early 80s. Their hit single “Norway” is available for a free download on their site or you can preview more tracks on their MySpace. 

1. Wall Street 2 & 3. Canal Street Station 4. Poconos, PA 5. Wall Street 6. L.E.S

First off thanks to my good friend Ryan for re-coding my blog for me.  Each time I tried to fix it up or change the CSS on the old one it was making it more and more sloppy.  I redesigned the blog similarly to the old one but this one is more organized and easier on the eyes as far as reading the posts and content. 

I wanted to start posting on certain titles or subjects on a weekly basis, so to start that off I think I’m going to start a new weekly theme called Quick Pics.  These are just photos taken from my phone without any manipulation to them (besides scaling them together as seen in the bottom photo).  You may wonder why these have a panoramic or Holga effect to them if they are not post processed. To answer that, the effect is just from the apps that I use on the iPhone which are pretty cool.

Smashing Magazine has posted a list of 25 free quality fonts.  I took a look over them and while some are mediocre there are a a couple pretty nice ones I would recommend downloading. Head over when you get the chance and get some free fonts. 

Uniqlo recently posted all their web projects online in one place.  For those unfamiliar, they have done some really inspiring, innovative and creative work the past couple of years. 

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is quite a strange and bizarre concept but some how it’s kind of fascinating.  Basically, and I’m not sure who would do this but it deletes all your social networks in a very short amount of time as oppose to doing it yourself manually.  The design itself is very 2.0ish and trendy which makes the whole site a bit gimmicky. Nonetheless, if anyone is tired of being stalked, harassed or spammed to death on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and some reason LinkedIn this is your chance to erase yourself from all the social networks. 

I hope everybody had a great New Year’s, I don’t have too much to say at the moment as I am still trying to settle down and get the hang of things again; it’s been quite some time. I will be a pretty busy the first couple of months in 2010, I have some projects that are kicking off and I have to find a new place by next month.  For those not living in NYC, locating a new place is pretty hectic and can be quite stressful.  But beyond that I am hoping to get a couple of personal projects completed this year, a new blog, site, personal work, etc. as well as continuing to work for major brands and expanding and meeting new clients. 

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and Happy Holidays this year. What a crazy year it has been despite the slow economy.  I would like thank everyone that I had a chance to work with this year and I look forward to seeing what 2010 brings. Have a good X-Mas and New Years.

Adam

I was going through some files and came across these unused pieces I did earlier this year for a client. Getting in the holiday spirit, these are up for a free download for anyone that can find use of them.  Not sure where they would fit in but perhaps some sports related work or icons.  These are completely customizable .ai files (illustrator). Download here. 

A friend of mine recently came across an interesting photo shoot for Empire Online’s 20th Birthday Portfolio.  The one image that grabbed his attention was the shot of Gerard Butler (Right) dressed in business casual attire holding a spartan shield.  I had a similar idea that I created last year for a Cinemax campaign (Left) that featured the movie 300 as well.  The concept was an everyday person imaging themselves as a spartan in a modern world.  Anyway I think it’s kind of cool seeing a illustrated version and a closely related photograph.

A little late on this but the Underworld Rise of The Lycans, the last project that I worked on while at Big Spaceship has recently won a Pixel Award under the movie category.